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Kyle McCord, a New Jersey native, said he didn’t even know Bruce Springsteen was coming to the JMA Wireless Dome tonight. He only realized it when quarterbacks coach Nunzio Campanile mentioned Springsteen in a meeting.

While McCord was unaware of Springsteen’s presence in the Salt City, he has seen how his receivers have improved over the course of spring football practices. He specifically mentioned Zeed Haynes, Trebor Pena and Dan Villari as players who have improved. McCord said Villari has really come around to growing in his first full offseason in the position.

Along with improving receivers, McCord said the intensity has improved, creating better competition. But he got more specific for his side of the ball.

“And for the offense, (it’s about) just getting the timing down the communication, I think was a big piece of it,” McCord said. “And I think right now, we’re getting to a point where we’re rolling and things are going pretty smooth. But obviously, it’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

Here are some more observations about the last spring football practice available to the media:

Offensive line starters for the spring game

New offensive line coach Dale Williams had an immediate answer when asked who would be the starting five on the line for the spring game. Williams said Da’Metrius Weatherspoon, Mark Petry, Jakob Bradford and J’Onre Reed will all start on Saturday.

As for the last position on the offensive line — right tackle — Williams said it was between previous starter Enrique Cruz Jr. and redshirt freshman Joshua Miller. Williams said both players know he can pull them out at any moment. The coaching staff has emphasized competition throughout spring football, and Williams is no different.

In fact, Williams went further with the idea of competition and how the bench could be a great motivator for not just Cruz Jr. and Miller, but for the whole line.

“The greatest motivator is ‘Your ass is on the bench,’” Williams said. “Then the bench transmits a signal to your ass, which transmits a signal to your brain. Then all of a sudden it’s a great process because then they play better. So I think the bench is a great motivator.”

Introduction to Syracuse’s general manager

Syracuse hired Nate McNeal, who was previously the director of player personnel at Illinois, as its general manager back in December, representing another change in the Fran Brown regime. McNeal said he first met Brown in 2019 while the two were at Temple. Brown was the defensive backs coach and McNeal was the director of player personnel, saying the two men worked well together.

On a day-to-day basis, McNeal manages the roster and determines who the program wants on the roster for fall ball in August. McNeal doesn’t have any role in the name, image and likeness collectives surrounding the program, instead focusing on the large number of recruits and commits. McNeal said he wants to get the brand out to the public with the large number of recruits, but it’s still a balance with finding the talent that can actually play at SU.

“If they’re here, they’ve been identified by the scouting department,” McNeal said. “Whether they got to come to camp or they might have years, senior year or junior year, where they explode. So we just want to get them here, and then we’ll continue to evaluate.”

Talking with scouts, support staff

The media also had the chance to speak with members of Syracuse’s scouting and recruiting department: Tommy Caporale, Tony Giovagnoli, Alberto De La Guardia, Alex Kelly, Aaron Mannicci and Emmanuel Marc.

With various commits and recruits visiting SU, even from the classes of 2026, 2027 and 2028, Kelly, who came to Syracuse with Brown from Georgia, said he still thinks good football players are good football players and their scouting department can identify that. For De La Guardia, it’s not about just recruiting the 2025 class.

“You got to be thinking multiple years ahead,” De La Guardia said. “…It’s good to get them on campus early, get verified measurables on them and start that process with them as early as possible.”

Unlike Kelly, De La Guardia and Giovagnoli mentioned how they spent time under the Dino Babers era and now see the immediate difference in the Fran Brown era. De La Guardia said the difference in energy level was evident, seeing that with the players as well. He added it creates a whole different type of competitive environment at Ensley Athletic Center.

But along with the scouts, the media talked to on-campus recruiting assistants like Cami Pasqualoni, daughter of former Syracuse football coach Paul Pasqualoni. Pasqualoni said the staff has had ideas like having Hibachi food in the JMA Wireless Dome in their back pocket, so finally getting to implement them and have them trend on social media was gratifying to say the least.

“That was really fun because that was right when they got here in December, we went into the Dome and did all those fun things,” Pasqualoni said. “So that was really exciting and it was fun to see everybody rally behind us.”

Published on April 18, 2024 at 1:27 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com